Hot on the trail
CBRM backs Baille Ard extension
Cape Breton Regional Municipality council will send a letter to Nova Scotia’s Community Services minister in support of a proposed extension of the Baille Ard trail system.
The proposed extension would connect the popular trail with Cossitt Heights and the Cow Bay Road overpass.
At its regular monthly session this week, senior planner Rick McCready said the plans for the Baille Ard trail would fit in well with the municipality’s active transportation plan.
“Completing these connections would be a major accomplishment for our CBRM active transportation plan,” he said.
The Baille Ard trail system is located on land owned by the province, which was originally intended to be developed as residential lots. The trails are maintained by the registered non-profit trail society.
The society approached the CBRM active transportation committee last year about the possible expansion, looking for its support to get approval from the province to develop a new pathway parallel to Highway 125. It would connect the existing trail with new trails being built in Cossitt Heights by the company developing a subdivision there, Joneljim Construction, and eventually to the Cow Bay Road overpass. That would connect the system to the Grand Lake Road multi-use path, McCready said.
“Once this entire trail system is completed, once all the pieces fall into place, we would have a continuous active transportation corridor from really the end of Terrace Street in Sydney to the Mayflower Mall, the university, to the airport and to Reserve Mines,” he said.
The Baille Ard society asked that council support its plan in principle, noting the society would build and maintain the trail extension. It needs the approval of the province to go ahead with the project.
In his report to council, McCready noted that the Nova Scotia Department of Housing owns 45 hectares of vacant wooded land between Terrace Street and Cossitt Heights that could be used for residential development, and the society would need only 2.5 hectares for its proposal. Without that portion, the department could still accommodate 638 new housing units with its remaining land.
McCready added CBRM staff believe the land already being developed at Cossitt Heights will be sufficient to meet the demand for new lots in that neighbourhood of Sydney for many years.
It’s still very early on in the process, McCready added, and no formal plans have yet been drawn up. The society is anxious to begin fundraising for the possible development, he noted.
Council agreed to write the letter supporting the plan.
“There really is no downside,” Dist. 6 Coun. Ray Paruch said.